Mediterranean Forum
The Mediterranean Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation is a series of informal intergovernmental conferences of a group of Mediterranean countries that have been held annually since 1994 . The forum was originally attended by EU members Portugal , Spain , France , Italy and Greece and non-EU members Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia , Egypt and Turkey . Later joined Malta (since 2004 also now an EU member) added.
The Mediterranean Forum is an informal dialogue forum originally initiated by the Egyptian government, which on the one hand aims to expand the format of the 5 + 5 dialogue to the entire Mediterranean and on the other hand has been a source of ideas and impetus for the Euro-Mediterranean partnership since 1995 (Barcelona Process) and from 2008 for the Union for the Mediterranean . The fact that the states of Israel , Lebanon and Syria represented in the Barcelona Process are not involved in the Mediterranean Forum prevented the forum's debates from being too much of an influence of the Middle East conflict . This makes it easier to negotiate joint initiatives: for example, the anti-terror code agreed within the framework of the Euro-Mediterranean partnership originated in 2005 from a working group of the Mediterranean Forum.
The Mediterranean Forum conferences are generally held annually and are each organized by a different participating State. The first conference was in Alexandria, Egypt , in July 1994 . There was no conference in 2004, but two in 2006. The last meeting of the Mediterranean Forum to date was held in Algeria in June 2008 .